Native Americans and World War II

[1]: 67 According to Bernstein, life on reservations was difficult for Native Americans prior to the war due to low levels of development and lack of economic opportunities.

[1]: 24  Nearly one quarter of Native Americans had no formal education, and even for high school graduates, few forms of conventional employment existed on reservations.

Bernstein argues that their still-questionable status as citizens of the United States at the outbreak of the Second World War made many Native Americans question volunteering for military service since "the Federal government had the power to force Indians to serve in the military but did not have the power to compel Mississippi to grant Indians the vote.

The first known Native American casualty of war was a young Oklahoma man who died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

[2][3][4] One of the most significant benefits that Native American men and women obtained from the war effort were the honors they received for serving including pow wows arranged prior to their deployment or upon their return.

Due to both the waning sense of isolation on reservations brought on by the war and the influx of money, Native Americans began to have access to consumer goods and services.

[citation needed] In February 1942, a civilian named Philip Johnston came up with the idea of using the Navajo language as military code.

[6] The code itself was composed of carefully selected Navajo words that used poetic circumlocution so that even a Navajo-speaker would not be able to understand the communications without training.

For example, Britain was spoken as "between waters" (toh-ta), a dive bomber was a "chicken hawk" (gini), a grenade was a "potato" (ni-ma-si) and Germany was "iron hat" (besh-be-cha-he).